Trade union members round the world face a growing risk of incarceration and violence for defending workers' rights, an international labour organisation said in an annual study.
About 1,600 union members suffered violent assaults last year compared to the 704 tortured, beaten or injured in 2004, while the number of arrests doubled to 9,000, the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) said.
The number of labour activists killed fell to 115 from 145, said ICFTU. Colombia again topped the list with 70 recorded cases of killings, but this was down from 99 the year before.
"The (global) death toll was slightly lower in 2005 than the previous year, but we are nevertheless witnessing increasingly severe violence and hostility against working people who stand up for their rights," said ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder.
ICFTU says it represents 155 million workers in 236 affiliated organisations in 154 countries and territories. The survey was conducted across 137 countries.
The confederation said Latin America remained the most perilous region for trade unions and that there was a "climate of continuing impunity for the assassins and deliberate targeting of trade unions by armed groups" in Colombia.
In Asia, child labour, sexual harassment, unpaid overtime and dangerous safety conditions were rife in the export sectors of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines as countries sought desperately to undercut each other on cost, it said.
Several richer countries were singled out for criticism. ICFTU condemned new Australian labour laws for restricting workers' rights to union representation and said labour rights were being undermined further in the United States.
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